Phasmophobia adds voodoo doll, tarot deck, and other scare necessities

Phasmophobia ghost closeup — (Image credit: Kinetic Games)

Phasmophobia is one of the best horror games ever made, a unique co-op experience that's loosely based on those American haunted house shows but amazingly inventive, surprising, and replayable with it. And scary! This game frightens the bejeesus out of me, but I keep coming back for that sweet hit of cold, panicked fear.

But you knew all that, right? The game has been a significant success for developer Kinetic Games, which has since release kept making significant additions and changes to the game, and true-to-form the latest update adds a tonne of new stuff to tickle your collywobbles.

Most significant is the addition of cursed objects in locations where ghosts are haunting. A random one will spawn on each map in various locations, and can be used to trade sanity for information about the ghost. You also run the risk it'll take more than the sanity, however, and add an additional negative effect such as permanently angering the ghost.

A spooky picture in Phasmophobia — (Image credit: Kinetic Games)

There's a nice range of these that have different effects: ghosts will sing along to the music box, for example, but if you get too close there may be 'a nasty surprise'; You can stick a pin in a voodoo doll to trigger a reaction from the ghost; There's a haunted mirror that shows you the ghost's room if you dare to peek; a summoning circle where you can temporarily trap the ghost; a deck of ten Tarot cards with their own effects; And finally, a rework of the existing Ouija board with new effects. "You must now say 'Goodbye' to finish talking with a ghost on the Ouija Board, or else..."

A new ghost type has been added: The Mimic. "The most intriguing ghost type we’ve ever encountered," apparently. I don't like that thing's name.

There's also been a rework of the recently added Nightmare difficulty setting, which the developer reckoned had too many elements of a guessing game to it. "[S]ome ghost types have received new abilities, passives and other adjustments to make them feel more in-line with their journal descriptions", they'll now only use their physical form during hunts, and "all ghost abilities have been adjusted to make them happen more often and more consistently."

The Maple Campsite has received some snowy Christmas theming for the season, and also contains a pretty neat Easter egg I've somehow missed.

Finally, Kinetic Games has made one change I just hate: "You can no longer quickly escape through the exterior doors or gates when a hunt starts." I feel like this was aimed square at my extremely brave tactics during scary hunts.

The update is free and out now for all players (full notes here). Phasmophobia is fantastic: You should try it.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."